Mystery Corn

As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

I am sitting here pondering something which .........I can not out the person I normally would expose, due to a loyalty.........but I am concluding that some seed suppliers in the heritage seeds, are so jammed with too many varieties, that they are contaminated in becoming oddball hybrids.


I was growing a very long season, yellow, southern corn, this year which was a dent. I did not have a large quantity of seeds, so put in a little patch next to some yellow and white sweet corn, my Mandan Bride corn, and my larger patch of a corn I can not share the name of, which is a yellow dent too.

So I have been watching this corn, and waiting, and picked some today. I have found that in most cases the seeds I get from this supplier are .............I planted like 50 seeds and got a dozen ears..........so they just do not produce.
So I picked this corn, and I had some nice ears......but they looked white and yellow.

Now mind you, this could have come from my sweet corn, but this corn is very tall, and my suspicion is as some blue kernels popped up to, that it reminds me of some yellow, white and red dent corns, when I got blue kernels popping up too......and I had absolutely no blue corn growing.
Meaning this same seed is cross pollinated often, and being sold to the public.

There is evidence in this, in I got a few ears which were typical of this variety in more than a dozen kernel rows per cob with fat ears. Then there was this one I picked which was like 14 inches long, thin, and having that same white and yellow type kernel mosiac.'
I know that cobs are not a product of this season's cross pollination, so this is some long season Cherokee type dent corn that was growing in this group the same year or years ago.

I know corn walks a great deal, and it could be that I had over exposure, as one sweet corn looked dent and flint.........but the large plot I had of yellow dent, which is USDA corn at source, has not exhibited any white or flint kernels. There should have been the same pollination which did not show up..........therefore, my conclusion is........this corn is contaminated.

Mind you now, hybrids are great corns. You get all kinds of good genetics and high production.........but I was not in this to grow out for years to stabilize new species of corn. I was only attempting to make this long season corn into a mid season corn as the great plant breeder Oscar Will accomplished with so many varieties.

Now I am stuck with this thing or these things. One as I said is a very long looking narrow cob, like the old King Phillip lines in flint, and the others are these fat cobs with numerous rows of kernels.......and both have this yellow kernel thing going on, but as you look harder, the kernels look whiter in more abundance......until you find these blue kernels showing up.

I still have time to muck this out, as spring is far enough off, but this has me scowling. My reason for getting yellow dent corn, was to provide it as a direct market to grain handlers......they do not appreciate white or other colored corn mixed in, as it no different than a weed.
So who knows what is floating around in these genetics, if I can ever just planting yellow kernels get this to be yellow, of if I am going to have blues appear and these whites like an Indian corn.

I really am interested in this long narrow cob, with not that many rows, as that corn filled to the end, grew in hot drought weather, and really performed.........again though it is yellow and white.......and I have other corns from this supplier which are "white" and they have bright yellow kernels appearing too.

That is the thing, this corn is pale yellow too, and it like fools your eye as you see yellow, but start to focus and then you see.......well those kernels look white.......and even the yellows look a bit white too.
I know here are white capped yellow corns.........Nothstine is such a variety and I grow that too as it is pretty and I am trying to ascertain what I can do with it.

This crossbred though just is not what I signed up for or bought. It is going to take double the work and even if fortunate triple the time to sort out.

I am just thankful my focused breeding project did expand the seed structure I need, and while I am not getting 500 ears of great corn........I am getting some very large ears in enough quantity to put in a bigger plot.........the smaller ears will be if I have money and space, a secondary test plot to see if they will produce.
I did note that I planted two different kernel types in one was a DeKalb type large kernel and the other a Funks small kernel.........and the large kernel crop did much better than the more numerous kernels on the ear.

Each year if God gives a crop, I will eventually get to the point of the corn my bias is looking for in large ears, large kernels, 12 rows, ears that hang down, and stalk strength. At least my variety is not multi colored or having other things show up in it.

A year is too long to waste on something which is a mistake of someone else, as they have too much to handle. Another year wasted though, but I am learning too............like the popcorn I did not care about, crossed from some little yellow and white Indian corn to pinks, browns, reds and oranges, when another variety cross pollinated with it. This is a much more attractive corn.....which is fine, as I am not selling white popcorn or yellow, so my breeding does work out with God's intentions for a more lovely coloration.

Still am scowling though........like the time I was sent Bloody Butcher and it was white and red..........now I see they are selling a Calico Bloody Butcher, which is probably some screw up that I still have in my collection scowling over as it was not what I wanted either.

Mystery corn........it is due to trying to jam too many varieties into too small of space.


agtG